Huntsville gazette., 1887-04-02

depot some of their friends had gath.
cred to hear the news.
OF each and all, they asked the same
question.
ssHev you ever heerd of Nastalgypr
And none of them had ever heard of
it, but all agreed that it must be a
dreadful thing to have such difficult
name.
When they reached the city they had
cried and worried themselves sick.
At least the two women had. The
father, with the stoicism of his kind,
had beat constant tattoo on the car
window and whistled an accompani-
ment-all the time he was crying in his
heart:
"Oh, Absalom! my son! my sonr'
There was no one to meet them, as
no one was interested in their coming
except Ben and the doctor, and they
neither of them had heard of their in
tentions.
So they went at once to the place
where Ben boarded, a dreary house,
with innumerable small, ill-ventilated
rooms, where for the entire sum that he
earned weekly Ben Connover was per-
mitted to lodge.
The doctor had made his hospital
rounds that night and his last call was
on Ben. He was a young physician,
and very Jealous over his patients. He
took an interest in the handsome,
whole-souled country boy who was un-
accustomed to close rooms and sewer
gas and lonely hours, and SO wrote
that letter to his mother
And as they stood on the step ring.
ing the grumbling bell he walked ur
and soon discovered who they were
and made himself known.
''Oh, Doctor, is there any hope?
= ''Doctor, miH my boy get well?
Doctor, is he still alive?''
These were the questions that were
poured into the doctors ears.
How very unfeeling Of him to laugh
''Why, there is nothing in this world
the matter with him! As / wrote you
it's only a bad case of nostalgia. -
''Doctor!" said the father sternlv,
'put that ere word in plain English!"
"Oh, l see." laughed the doctor.
sit is the medical term for homesich.
ness
And that was all that allied the boy
A good deal of mental longing and
worry had brought on fever, and Ben
was fast becoming really i'll, but the SYM
pathetic young doctor had diagnosed
his case correctly. He was soldier
who was not sick from any fatal nal.
ady. He was homesick.
.Now that we're here We'll stay and
see the sights, Sary Ann,'' Mr.. Con
mover said to his wife, ''and you can
coddle Ben all you want to.
And Ben was very willing to be cod
died. But it was strange that after ex-
planning that big medical word, the
doctor still kept coming. 1t worried
the old couple little, because they
thought Ben must be in danger after
all.
But it was the doctor who was in
danger now. He had transferred his
interest in the brother to the sister.
And no word was big enough TO dag
nose his case.
But it all came out right Only Ben
must have tonics and directions. and
at last the doctor went out there and
established a practice, leaving ont the
Latin words.
And he was right. There is no more
insidious disease than homesickness.
When the Swiss soldiers-the bravest
fighters in the wOrld-hear the familiar
RAM des baches they lean on their car
bines and weep for their loved glaciers
and mountain pines, and often die of
that hidden wound of the heart-whose
classical name is nostalgia, and which
freely translated means sickness for
home. "--Detr0H Free Press.